That kid’s got a HUGE noggin

I was gone for most of this morning which is a total rarity.  I had to go to Sam’s club because the dogs were completely out of biscuits, and the outside cats were having to eat the diet “senior” cat food for the indoor cats, and were complaining loudly about it.  I got home and Jeremy was there, he’d been with one of our pygmy goats, Joy, who had been laboring when I left.  He’d had to cut out her first kid because it had died and Joy was  struggling for a long time to get it out.  The second baby was there with it’s little face in the birth canal, licking Jeremy’s fingers when he poked around in there.  But he just couldn’t get it out, it’s hooves were not in the dive position and Joy’s hips were too small for Jeremy to reach in and reposition it.  I was able to get the hooves repositioned, but its head was just too big.  Poor Joy was so uncomfortable and I had to keep putting my hand back in there to move things to try and get the baby out.  I know exactly how it feels to have someone’s hand up your uterus, so I kept apologizing – but it had to be done.  Finally, we decided we’d have to cut it out.  It had died already anyway (too long with the amniotic sac broken), and Joy was in agony trying to deliver it.  Afterward, Joy laid her head in my lap and I just petted her and talked to her quietly.  It was obvious that she felt better just having it over with and I felt just awful for not having been able to help her more.

We decided that we’re going to sell our pygmy’s now, because lately it seems like more die than live.  We introduced a new buck to the herd about a year and a half ago, and since then things have just been going all wrong.  The rest will probably go to auction, but I’m going to find a home for Joy where there won’t be any chance of her being bred again.  Her hips are so small, I could hardly even get my hand in there around the baby – and when she contracted, her hips squeezed the baby back in rather than pushing it out.  Going through that with her, I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what a complicated labor was like back in the day.  It makes me cringe just to think about it!

Anyone want a sweet little pygmy doe?